Manlius pickup install day!!!

Nice update/upgrade man. Those Manlius pickups are some of the very best.

For those wondering, one of the original pots died, and so I decided to gut it and rewire the whole thing. While I was in there I found that the braided wire from the original pickups was so corroded that it would literally come apart in your hands, and then when I looked closely at the pickups they were in abysmal shape. Seemed a bad choice to wire up a set of dying pickups to a new harness, and I already had the set of GFS pickups in a box, so...

Anyway, I have stated many times that GFS are some of my favorite pickups, and that's a set of their top-of-the-line hot A-5's, which sound great and have a bit of a T-Top flavor to them.

This was all disclosed to Don when he bought the guitar, and I'm thrilled that he loves it so much!
 
gball said:
Nice update/upgrade man. Those Manlius pickups are some of the very best.

For those wondering, one of the original pots died, and so I decided to gut it and rewire the whole thing. While I was in there I found that the braided wire from the original pickups was so corroded that it would literally come apart in your hands, and then when I looked closely at the pickups they were in abysmal shape. Seemed a bad choice to wire up a set of dying pickups to a new harness, and I already had the set of GFS pickups in a box, so...

Anyway, I have stated many times that GFS are some of my favorite pickups, and that's a set of their top-of-the-line hot A-5's, which sound great and have a bit of a T-Top flavor to them.

This was all disclosed to Don when he bought the guitar, and I'm thrilled that he loves it so much!
Click to expand...

I am sure BDon was on top of things, and as I know from Bro Gball,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,the sale was top shelf and really only happened mostly due to his love of all things LP and Bdon knowing a good bit of bones when he sees one.
 
gball said:
Nice update/upgrade man. Those Manlius pickups are some of the very best.

For those wondering, one of the original pots died, and so I decided to gut it and rewire the whole thing. While I was in there I found that the braided wire from the original pickups was so corroded that it would literally come apart in your hands, and then when I looked closely at the pickups they were in abysmal shape. Seemed a bad choice to wire up a set of dying pickups to a new harness, and I already had the set of GFS pickups in a box, so...

Anyway, I have stated many times that GFS are some of my favorite pickups, and that's a set of their top-of-the-line hot A-5's, which sound great and have a bit of a T-Top flavor to them.

This was all disclosed to Don when he bought the guitar, and I'm thrilled that he loves it so much!
Click to expand...
Thank you sir! Seriously, that wiring job was really well done…solid, clean, and neat. Those pickups are super nice, and your setup heights had the output pretty darned close to what I am getting from the new ones set to pretty much original Gibson spec. It’s too bad about the original electronics, but there is no escaping entropy…and seaside living doesn’t slow it down in any way. I knew what I was getting…a really sweet player, with a good solid setup. The combination of pickups that I chose from Mick’s lineup at Manlius was specifically chosen to be fairly close to what had been in the 79-80 “The SG” models…like a hot T-top, or super humbucker, in the bridge….and a T-top at the neck.
Bridge model- Vinyl
www.manliusguitar.com

Vinyl

Vinyl Humbucker from Manlius Pickups. Hot 70's T-Top humbucker tone.
www.manliusguitar.com www.manliusguitar.com

Neck model- T-top replica
www.manliusguitar.com

T-Top Replica

T-Top from Manlius Pickups. Classic 70's humbucker tone with an edgy vintage response.
www.manliusguitar.com www.manliusguitar.com

These are pretty spot on to my memory of the originals…the bridge pickup is really nice sounding compared to my memory. One of the things that I like about these SG models is the pickup spacing….the neck pickup is slammed up against the end of the fretboard, much like a Les Paul. It has a different vibe from my other SG models.
The wiring harness is still in pretty spotless shape. I don’t think I made too much of a mess out of it ;)

You are the man sir! Thanks again.
 
Thatbastarddon said:
The combination of pickups that I chose from Mick’s lineup at Manlius was specifically chosen to be fairly close to what had been in the 79-80 “The SG” models…like a hot T-top, or super humbucker, in the bridge….and a T-top at the neck.
Bridge model- Vinyl
Click to expand...


Bdon, Yup I saw this upon seeing your spec sheet and looking at Mick's website.
My Epi LP has near matching output pups, but I fully understand the SG and how a heftier Bridge pup levels things out by the nature of the beast of SG's

Thatbastarddon said:
One of the things that I like about these SG models is the pickup spacing….the neck pickup is slammed up against the end of the fretboard, much like a Les Paul. It has a different vibe from my other SG models.
Click to expand...


Pretty sure you would agree that my 3 knob '87 SG Special is quite the same pup placement. It definitely is a factor.
Oh yeah, and my 1976 SG Std actually does have the " Tarback" pups in it. I know a few of our members kind of dig my white baby.

Markspics021-1.jpg
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
Pretty sure you would agree that my 3 knob '87 SG Special is quite the same pup placement.
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The special sauce for that pickup placement being slammed against the fingerboard is that one of the pickup halves falls under where the 24th fret would be. That's why Les Pauls have that nice sustain and overtones when using the neck pickup. That's why Les didn't like the SG style. He always complained that they moved the neck pickup out of the "sweet spot."
 
SG John said:
The special sauce for that pickup placement being slammed against the fingerboard is that one of the pickup halves falls under where the 24th fret would be. That's why Les Pauls have that nice sustain and overtones when using the neck pickup. That's why Les didn't like the SG style. He always complained that they moved the neck pickup out of the "sweet spot."
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I concur! Wholeheartedly! Last night‘s play session illustrated that point to me clearly. The neck pickup is definitely in the sweet spot on this one, and the T-top replica had a sweet, creamy, yet clear ring to it.
 
John, One of the first things I noticed once I installed the T TOPs was killer sustain.

I mean EPI LP plugged straight into my SS Princeton Chorus Amp and just singing away. The stock pups are not junk, but the T Tops sound so good, just like I know Bastard's Manlius ones will.
 
chilipeppermaniac said:
Bdon, I will be curious to hear your comparison on this SG to your Bad Azz V guitar.
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They are totally different animals, but would probably compliment each other fairly well. The humbucker sized P90 is hotter than either of the pickups in the SG in this thread..lIIRC…I’d have to take a measurement. The bridge pickup in the V is super hot and a bit of a modern voiced beast, but it rolls off nicely. Perhaps I will do something that would feature both guitars in a clip of some kind…
 
Wow! The Manlius pups are very reasonably priced. Dont know much about Manlius pups, but with all the nice reviews and solid customer satisfaction Manlius pups have received through the years, I assumed their cost was going to be at ThroBak levels!

There sure are a lot of good options out there when it comes to quality pickups.
 
syscokid said:
Wow! The Manlius pups are very reasonably priced. Dont know much about Manlius pups, but with all the nice reviews and solid customer satisfaction Manlius pups have received through the years, I assumed their cost was going to be at ThroBak levels!

There sure are a lot of good options out there when it comes to quality pickups.
Click to expand...


I have them in six of my guitars. I also put them in the two SG builds that are now living in England. I really like Mick's pickups. They are certainly Lollar or Fralin quality without the high price tag.

Let's see if I can remember what I have in mine...

'85 Les Paul Landmark PAF
'62 SG Special Hot Howlin' Goat P-90
'69 SG Std. Fat Diane PAF
'58 Flying V build Fat Diane PAF
'68 SG Jr. Hot Howlin' Goat P-90
Broadcaster build Franken-Tele set (no longer made)
'62 Mongrel Strat '61 spec Fender Strat pickups, wound to specs for the Rory Gallagher custom shop model. Mick has friends, and was able to get some good info on those pickups.

The Two SGs in England also have Hot Howlin' Goat P-90s.
 
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syscokid said:
Mad sustain... :dood:

What were you plugged into?
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Thanks! That was all Kemper. I monitor through a Yamaha HS8 set.
The loop was both pickups(bridge volume higher than neck) through a HiWatt 50 profile, using a rotary speaker effect.
The noodle was all neck(T-Top replica), full tilt, through a Mesa JP2C profile, standard delay and reverb setup(no thought involved…whatever the default settings were…I just turned them on).
 
Thatbastarddon said:
So, I’ve been slacking on projects for a while now…I received this set of Manlius pickups a while back, and found some time, before losing the sun, today to actually install them in their targeted axe.
View attachment 70606

I will apologize to @gball for messing up/with his fine work in the control cavity. It was not a really necessary change, as the pickups that he had in there sounded fine…and the wiring was pretty darned neat and tidy!
View attachment 70607

But(if it’s mine), I feel the need for a guitar from this era to look the way I remember it….Plus….I really wanted to try out some of Manlius’ variations of T-top type pickups ;) Basically, I knew that I was going to install this particular set of pickups into a guitar from this era, if I found one that did not have the original pickups in place.
The pickups that were in this guitar when I got it were from the GFS line…

View attachment 70608
View attachment 70609

…and they really did look, and sound, fine.
View attachment 70610

So…today I found some time to do some maintenance, and soldering to this fantastic beast. I ran out of sun, and time, for a full body shot. I did have time to get a gut-shot though…

View attachment 70611

I hope it works!;) I’ll find out a bit later on….
:cheers:
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Beautifully done!
 
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